Category: 1.5 Commercial Open Source
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Commercial Open Source: The Naming Confusion Remains
In 2004, SugarCRM coined the term “commercial open source“. This term was intend to separate the commercially-oriented open source projects of venture-capital-backed startups from the then dominant community open source projects. The term was picked up quickly, by many. I (as well as others) define it the following way: “A commercial open source firm is…
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Commercial Open Source Paper Appears in LNBIP 36
My AMCIS 2009 paper on the Commercial Open Source Business Model will be republished in an LNBIP (Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing) issue by Springer-Verlag. The reference is: Dirk Riehle. “The Commercial Open Source Business Model.” In Value Creation in e-Business Management, LNBIP 36. Edited by M.L. Nelson et al. Springer-Verlag, 2009. Page 18–30.…
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Commercial Open Source: Faster, Better, Cheaper, and More Easily?
I’m trying to create a pithy statement as to how commercial open source firms are superior to traditional (closed source) software development firms. For that, I need to define what the specific effects are that using an open source go-to-market strategy has on the bottom line. (If your answer is “it’s the community, naturally”—that’s not…
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The Commercial Open Source Business Model [AMCIS 2009]
Abstract: Commercial open source software projects are open source software projects that are owned by a single firm that derives a direct and significant revenue stream from the software. Commercial open source at first glance represents an economic paradox: How can a firm earn money if it is making its product available for free as…
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The Perils of Going from Community to Commercial Open Source
The growth and corporate adoption of many community open source projects is hindered by the lack of commercial support. At the same time, well working community open source is a temptation for startups to make a buck by turning the community project into commercial open source. We can currently observe the unraveling of such a…
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Open Source is a Business Strategy not a Business Model
Following up on related discussions, another common confusion in my opinion is to think that “open source” is a business model. It is not. Open source is a business strategy, in support of a business model. You still need to know how to make money, and it doesn’t happen by giving software away for free.…